Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Day & Night in Skyward Sword

There are lots of spoilers about Skyward Sword from the latest issue of Nintendo Power found at NeoGAF forums. The one that made me shout "hell yeah" was the confirmation, that this game will indeed have a day & night system.

I was starting to think that this won't be the case, there wasn't any material that indicated the existence of a day & night system. All screenshots and movies showed the game during daylight and the GameInformer playthrough of the Eldin Volcano area also didn't mention any transition between day and night, though the reporter played the game for hours. And considering that both Nintendo DS Zelda games also didn't feature any night time, I was beginning to accept the fact that Skyward Sword will be another nightless Zelda game. And for me this was a disappointing thought, the night time was always something that really added to the atmosphere of the 3D Zeldas, especially the N64 ones. Walking through Kakariko Village at night listening to the sounds of the birds, the windmill and rustling Skulltulas still gives me goosebumps. And I would have really missed the night time in Skyward Sword.

But luckily it's there, it just works differently. The transition between day and night doesn't happen automatically, you have to go to your bed to change between day and night (maybe later there will also something similar to the Sun's Song for your Harp, so you can change the daytime whereever you are). In Skyloft monsters will appear during night, which sounds similar to Outset Island. However, those monsters seem to be some scary kittens, lol.

But since the transition between day and night is missing, a part of the atmosphere might be gone as well. You know, this feeling when the sun goes down, wolves are howling to announce the start of the night and suddenly everything is silent. It's still better than having no night at all though.

There are many other details mentioned in Nintendo Power and I suggest that you take a look. But the Shiekah Stones from Ocarina of Time 3D will be back and you will be able to switch between three different HUD settings. There's also some bad news, you actually will only be able to save at the bird statues. As someone, who likes to save as often as possible, I don't like this much. It feels like going back to the save system of Majora's Mask.